Friday Favorites, Happiness is Shoes and Books

Happy Friday friends! Time to link up with the ladies at A Little Bit of Everything Blog, Grace and Love Blog, and Momfessionals as usual! 🙂 Head on over to all their sites if you wanna join in the link up!

I’m also linking up with other blogging women at A.Liz Adventures, Carolina Charm, Hello! Happiness, and The Good Life Blog.

 

And last but not least The Farmer’s Wife and September Farm. 

Because I love to read so much I get really excited and put a bunch of holds on my library account online. I figure that the holds will come in at different times so it won’t be a big deal to add a bunch at the same time. But when I went in yesterday, there were 10 books ready for me to devour them.

Dave thought it was so funny that I came out with an armload of books, so he snapped this picture.

Which brings me to my next favorite thing this week. Those pink shoes in that last picture. They are Sketchers Go Walk that I heard about from Shay, the Mix and Match Mama (she’s one of my favorite bloggers!) I saw that she mentioned them in a blog post and I thought they were so cute.

I love bright colors, and she raved about how comfortable they were. Then the other day I was at Kohl’s and saw that the shoes were on sale for $60 so I had to snatch them up. I’ve worn them everyday since I bought them. They’re light weight, offer great support, and are so easy to slip on and off. I’m in love.

 

 

Since I picked up so many books from the library I had to start reading them immediately. I put them in the order that I want to read them and started with The Men We Became by Robert Littell.

It’s nice to get a glimpse into the life of John F. Kennedy Jr. to see what he’s really like from people who really know him. They shared a 20 year friendship and experienced a lot together. I’m about 50 pages from being done but I already love it. I’ll do a full book review after I finish it. 

Ever since our road trip, I’ve become obsessed with podcasts. There are so many good ones out there! They’re perfect for driving and commuting. It makes the ride go faster and keeps my mind engaged.

My current favorite podcast is from the author of the Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin. It’s called Happier with Gretchen Rubin. She and her sister talk about about habits that can have an effect on your well being and you guessed it, happiness! 🙂 It’s fun and very relatable.

And lastly, I am really excited to start reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I’ve wanted to read it since before the movie came out and it finally came in for me after being on the wait list. I love Reese Witherspoon and can’t wait to see the movie after I read the book. I already know it’s going to be a great read.

Hope you all have great weekends, thanks for stopping by!

 

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My Happiness Project: May Goals

May

• No More Procrastinating
• Stop Avoiding Confrontation
• Respond to Emails Right Away

I tend to be a bit of a procrastinator at times. I make to do lists and don’t always get through them right away. It’s something I would like to change about myself. So for the entire month of May, this is my challenge.

Another bad habit of mine is the fact that I avoid confrontations. I don’t like to argue with others so I tend to not always speak my mind. But obviously there are ways to get your point across without being confrontational.  I need to work on dealing with difficult issues and not letting them fall by the wayside.

And lastly, I want to make sure that I keep up with my correspondence. When I check my emails I mentally write back but sometimes forget to physically write the email. So a few days pass by and I think I have emailed but I really haven’t. Email is such a quick and easy way to keep in touch, especially with family and friends living all over.

What are some of our habits that you are trying to change?

 

My Happiness Project: April Goals

My Happiness Project continues this month. My goals this month are focused on taking time to take it all in and self reflecting, as well as physically keeping fit.

April

• Workout in the Morning Before Doing Anything Else
• Hike Once A Week
• Take More Pictures
• Write in My Journal Everyday

We all know how quickly time flies by. One of my favorite quotes is, “The Days Are Long, But The Years Are Short.” That comes from Gretchen Rubin, the author of The Happiness Project.

I want to make sure that I am appreciating each season of my life and not taking for granted the simplicity of my life. I want to be able to look at on certain times in my life and know that I was living in those moments and not overlooking them.

So April will be the month of taking stock of my life at the current stage I’m in, and loving every minute of it.

My Happiness Project: March Goals

March

• Teeth Whitening
• Floss Everyday
• Focus on Skin Care (Wash My Face Every Night, Moisturize, Exfoliate, Sunscreen Daily, etc)

I decided that March should be the month that I take care of myself. I tend to get a little lazy sometimes when it comes to flossing and washing my face at night. I fall asleep on the couch some nights (earlier than I’d like to admit) and then I have no energy to fully get ready for bed.

But when I get ready for bed earlier I am more likely to be more thorough. So I’m going to make the effort this month to do what I need to before I get to the point of exhaustion.

I’ll keep you updated on how it goes at the end of this month. What goals are you currently working on?

 

My Happiness Project: February Goals

Last month I laid out My Happiness Project for the entire year. Let’s refresh our minds (and mine) what I’ll be focusing on for this month.

 

February

• Run 3 Times a Week
• Rock Climb Twice a Week (my boyfriend)
• No Meat
• No Processed Foods, No Candy, No Sugar
• No Alcohol Month (my boyfriend’s goal because I don’t drink)
• Drink 8 Glasses of Water A Day
• Cut Coffee Intake Down to Only 3 Times a Week vs. Everyday (my boyfriend’s addicted to iced coffee)

I am planning to run my first marathon this year, in December, so I need to get in the mindset of running on a regular basis.  Running for me is very therapeutic, it gives me time to think and be alone with my thoughts. I also enjoy listening to my music while I run, because it pumps me up and keeps me motivated to run.

Along with training and running, I thought it would be a perfect month to also eat properly. I have a huge sweet tooth, so it will definitely be a tough month for me to really exercise my self control. I don’t think I could be a full on vegetarian but I could definitely eat less meat.

This month I will have to plan my meals in advance and make frequent trips to the grocery store. (Good thing I only live 3 blocks away from the grocery store.)

Are you still sticking with your new year’s resolutions? How’s it going?

Happy 2014!

Happy New Year!! It’s 2014, can you believe it? To start off the new year fresh, I am going to focus on my resolutions.

After reading The Happiness Project this summer, I was inspired to start my own project. So what better time to start it, than the New Year?

I know what you’re thinking, new year’s resolutions never work out, people always forget about them, and don’t follow through after January.

But with the Happiness Project, your goals and resolutions are spread out over the year, and you focus on only a few at a time. This way it makes it easier to keep track of your goals and not spread yourself too thin.

So at the beginning of every month I’ll go over my resolutions for the month and and the end of the month I’ll see how it has affected my overall happiness.

I wanted to share My Happiness Project with all of you, to inspire you to read the book, start your own project, to hold me accountable to these goals, and because this is what our blog Say Yes To Happy is all about!!

So come back tomorrow and I’ll lay out my Happiness Project month by month!

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

I have been meaning to read this book for months now, ever since I gave it to my friend as a Christmas gift. I am so glad I finally got around to it. In this day and age when everyone is so busy and always has somewhere to be, it’s refreshing to read a book that makes you evaluate your life and take a moment to think if you really are happy.

“Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. “The days are long, but they years are short,” she realized. “Time is passing and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.”

So she set out with specific goals and resolutions to focus on each month. Here are a few examples: go to sleep earlier, exercise better, act more energetic, take time to be silly, use good manners, start a collection, forget about results, master a new technology. So each chapter is a month of the year and she evaluates how she does at the end of every month. What I love about the idea of breaking down goals into months is that it is more manageable that way and you are not doing too much at one time.

It is a very easy, fun read and she is very relatable. This book is definitely inspiring and makes me want to start my own happiness project and focus on what makes me happy. I also really liked that she mentions that you don’t have to take drastic measures and uproot your life to find happiness but that you can concentrate on what you do have and just be more grateful and in the moment. It’s a great experiment and I would recommend this book for sure.

She also started a blog to go along with her book, which you can visit at www.happiness-project.com. In addition to this book she has since written a second book on happiness entitled Happier at Home which I will definitely be reading at some point.